1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to telecommunications. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to controlling ringback tones heard by a calling party.
2. Background Information
Wireline service providers, wireless service providers, and voice over IP (VoIP) service providers offer ringback tone (RBT) services. The basic service allows a user to purchase a ringback tone, which can be downloaded to the network. A ringback tone can be a tone, an audio file, a video file, etc. When a caller calls a party that has subscribed to ringback tone service, the ringback tone is played to the calling party, instead of the current standing ringing signal/tone. A ringback tone can be assigned as a default to all incoming numbers, a group of numbers or a single number. A customer can purchase/lease multiple ringback tones.
A problem with current ringback tone services is that the calling party has no control over what he hears once he dial a phone number and are waiting for the call to be established. That is, a calling party currently has no control over what ringback tone or message is being played in lieu of a ringing signal. The lack of control is particularly troublesome when callers find the ringback tone selected by the called party to be annoying or even offensive. Compounding the problem is the fact that the service provider does not have control over messages coming from “off network.” Thus, a need exists for the ability to block or substitute for the ringback tone played by the called party.